Maine potato industry expecting crop losses of 25 to 30 percent

Last fall, Don Flannery, executive director of the Maine Potato Board, summed up the entire growing season as “challenging.”

He is applying the same words to the months since, as Aroostook County growers deal with crop losses of 25 to 30 percent due to excessive weather and three tornadoes that went through the area early last June.

“We lost some product through the growing season as growers had to leave some potatoes in the ground,” he said Monday. “And we lost them in the potato houses due to rot. It was all due to the weather. Everyone was impacted. Some more than others, but everyone was impacted.”